Renaultsport R.S. 01: Like a French R8 with GT-R power

Street-performer looks belie 2425-lb weight and Godzilla muscle.

The foreign press is fawning over the new Renaultsport R.S. 01, Renault's new one-make-series entrant that will surely excite tens of French fans. The World Series by Renault's Renaultsport Trophy class is the particular flavor of racing, and the R.S. 01 will comprise the length and breadth of its entrants. It's a shame the thing looks a bit like an Audi R8 wearing evil mime paint, and that it's not going to dice it up against anything other than itself, because the specs are promising.

Under its mime getup, there's a Dallara carbon-fiber monocoque featuring an integral roll cage and fuel cell. The composite bodywork wraps over a NISMO-supplied 3.8 liter twin-turbo V6. If that engine sounds familiar to you, it should be: it's the Nissan GT-R's mill, paired to a Sadev sequential 7-speed transaxle out back. The V6 makes something north of 500 hp, and the whole thing weighs 2425 lbs. It should certainly be quick.

Renault and Nissan view this as a stepping stone to other efforts in a variety of series: GT, DTM, ELMS, WEV, and Super GT. In fact, winners in this particular Renaultsport Trophy class will have a shot at testing with the NISMO Super GT outfit, and the winner of the amateur class will get a chance to race an LMP2 car at Le Mans in 2016.

Nifty for those guys? Sure. But it's boring for us Americans, if I'm being honest. Make this a Super GT300 car, bring it to the US in a joint DTM-Super GT race, and maybe you get folks to pay attention. And do something about that mime paint, will you?